Sunday Sunshine

Wow, what a weekend! This is what living in Washington is all about - these beautiful days full of sunshine, working in the garden, putting my toes in the Puget Sound and having a cozy BBQ and fire at the end of the day.

Kabobs on the BBQ - Yum!

Putting our new fire pit to use.

Our roses are popping out like crazy! I love it, this is a photo of some yellow roses. We also have a couple different shades of pink and red.

Beach finds: sea glass in different colors and pretty striped rocks.

What did you guys do to enjoy the sunshine this weekend?

Spring Tip: Hardening Off Your Plants

Hey there! I haven’t posted in while – but it’s all been good stuff! Catching up on some things around the house and in the garden, weeding my little heart out, planting new plants and veggies in a few pots, and most importantly getting ready to celebrate my hubby’s birthday last week! I threw him a surprise party on Saturday with close friends and family, and we had a great time. He was definitely surprised - success!! I will do a post soon with some photos from the party.  

This is a fun photo of Kyle and I from my

aunt and uncle's wedding last summer!

For now, I did want to pass along this quick tip on hardening off plants I saw on the Seattle Tilth website that I found to be helpful. I have recently purchased some veggies for our vegetable garden this year, and I had them in the garage to start hardening them off for about a week. Hardening off your plants is all about slowly adjusting them to the current weather and temperature, especially with some of the wind, rain and cold temperatures we’ve had around here. The plants have been so used to greenhouses that it’s important to slowly get them ready to be outside full time, so they don’t go into shock! My plants enjoyed a couple nice days outside, too, before I planted them in the garden. More photos to come! 

For today, here is a fun iPhone photo of my backyard last week. Come on, Spring!

P.S. We have visual confirmation that the culprit to our garden vandalism is a river otter (or multiple otters!). More to come…

Our Damaged Garden Investigation

So... we have an issue over here in our garden at Our Sound Home. It's a weird one, so stick with me, folks.  The other day I was out in the garden, looking around at our progress. I try and get out every other day to at least check out how our plants are doing. I'm learning things can change pretty quickly in the garden during the spring season!
So, on my walk around our yard earlier this week, I saw that an area of the garden closest to the water was damaged. My tulips were totally torn up, squashed, and the area was just really messy. What the heck?! Kyle and I were thinking maybe it was a dog, or possibly a raccoon? It didn't look like anything was dug up, it was mostly just torn a part:

I was really bummed out, because these were tulips I had planted and as a first time gardener; I was annoyed that my work was ruined! Fast forward a few days, and it happens again! Only this time, it looks so much worse:

I hate to go into the messy details, but just because I really want to hear your thoughts on this, I am going to get into the gross part. There was vomit on the ground - in the grass, patio and garden bed - that had shells and bits of crab legs. Not like a little bit from a bird, but something much bigger.

The shape of the area that is damaged, the accessibility to our yard off our bulk head, and the messy gross stuff that was left behind are leading us to believe it's a seal or sea lion. Only, I thought they were more fish eaters than shellfish eaters. Do you have any other guesses?

We're tempted to get a camera and motion light to see if we can capture it on camera, because right now our suspicions are just a hunch. But, we're also trying to figure out how to keep whatever it is out of our yard in the future. I think our best idea as a short term solution is getting a few inexpensive solar lights to line the garden bed. Maybe the light at night will keep it way? We're also doing some research on the Washington Department of Wish and Wildlife website to see if we can narrow it down. I am super curious what you think. Let me know!

Happy Homeowner Easter Surprise

I thought some of you would appreciate this. When Kyle and I woke up and were getting ready for church on Sunday, we looked out at our lawn and to our surprise, we saw this:

They are plastic, yellow Adirondack chairs that will match our newly reupholstered patio furniture and Easter eggs!  What's funny, is I was just talking to Kyle about how this would be a good idea in case anything gross gets on them (like seagull poo, we can easily hose them off) and so we don't have to worry about them in the rain (which we get a lot of around here!).

My parents dropped them off Saturday night as a funny Easter morning surprise! Haha - we got a big kick out of it.  I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter and enjoyed the beautiful weather we had in the Pacific Northwest this weekend!

Bird Love

We just posted about our Bird House Love because of our recent bird house construction project, and wanted to follow-up with some actual Bird Love. Since we put up the bird houses, we’ve been enjoying some bird watching out one of our big windows in our living room.  

 We were  skeptical that the birds would even be interested in the new bird houses this season since we just put them up, but I think because they are in the same location and look so similar to the old bird houses, they have been extra interested.  We’ve also noticed they’ve been doing a little love making of their own, so maybe with Spring being here they’re extra into our bird houses to build nests?  

We’ve seen birds going busily in and out of the houses with little twigs to build the nests, which is so fun to watch. Glad our little birdies are happy!

Bird House Project

One of the things on our Home Spring Project List was to figure out what we wanted to do with our bird houses, which were on the backside of our garage near our patio. Check out a before photo here:

We were trying to determine whether we wanted to refinish the existing bird houses, or just build or buy new bird houses. After getting them down from the garage, we determined pretty quickly that new bird houses were the way to go. The old bird houses were made of really thin wood and had peeling paint, and they were stuffed to the brim with yucky nests. To be honest, I’m not sure how our little bird friends even got inside, I’m telling you, they were stuffed full! I was secretly hoping for a cute little nest inside, but that was not the case. Check it out: 

So, we knew at that point we wanted to build or buy bird houses. I took a trip to Lowes and Home Depot, and determined that the bird houses were way too expensive. Most were $15-$25 each, even for the simple wood houses, and they were pretty small.  We solicited the help of my dad since he had all the tools we would need, and he gladly accompanied me to the hardware store to check out our options for construction materials.

We decided to get simple cedar planks so that we wouldn’t have to do any painting, and got about 6 boards for around $10. We also got some heavy duty fencing screws that wouldn’t rust, especially since we were leaving them exposed with the cedar and they wouldn’t be painted. Those were another $10 (which we could definitely use for future projects), so the grand total of our materials for three houses was only $20. Nice!

My dad was a huge help, he did most the work and I mostly gave him design ideas. We used the old bird houses as a template, and built them together at my parents house one Saturday. We used a wood sealant to help keep the wood looking nice for years to come. Here’s a photo of us in progress, working on the bird houses. My biggest task was sanding them down and putting the sealant on the wood afterwards. 

Here is a shot of the inside of the bigger bird house. We made smaller nesting cubbies inside so that each bird would be able to nest separately, and then made holes for each of those cubbies.

 

Then, we had to wait for a good day to put them up. It seemed like every weekend it was rainy, so we waited and we waited, and waited some more. Finally, one week night at dusk when it was nice outside, we decided to just go for it and put these babies up.  My mom and dad came over, and he put them up with a bit of my help.

So, here is one more thing we’re crossing off our Spring Project List. Love that feeling!   

We also want to give an extra big shout out of THANKS to my dad, it’s his birthday today! Happy Birthday, Dad!  Thanks for all your help this past year! Love you!

The Lone Daffodil

I think my lawn is happy it's Spring time. Not only is it starting to get more green in color and lush, but it's sprouting a daffodil and lots of bluebells are starting to pop up.

Now, if only the sunshine would come out and temperature would warm up! Happy Monday!

Spring Patio Furniture Project

Remember the antique show I went to a few months ago? I went with my girlfriends Sarah and Liz, we had a great time, and I found a few fun goodies to bring home with me.

I found two garden chairs for $15 each, and they happened to have the wrought iron look I was going for on our patio. I thought they had good bones, and this would be a fun and relatively easy project.  I originally thought I would just recover them, but after I brought them home I realized the cushions were in pretty bad shape (moldy - gross).

I used up my black Rustoleum spray paint to give the chairs a fresh coat of paint. Then, I purchased some plywood at Home Depot and had them cut it down to size for my new chair cushions. I brought my wood pieces to my parents, and my dad helped me round off the corners (thanks, dad!).

Once I brought the wood back home, I gave the corners a good sanding, and then used some outdoor foam and fabric from Joanne's to recover.

I stapled my fabric around the edges of my board, which is now the bottom of the chair. I screwed the seat into place on the chair.

I love the result! The black wrought iron look is what we're going for on the patio, so it fits in great with a new bench ($40) I purchased at Costco. They had cushions at Costco for the bench, and just so happened to have a mustard yellow color that matches great with the chair cushions.

Overall the patio is coming together! The combination of some new (to us) furniture, pruning of our bushes last fall, and newly planted spring plants is really helping. We're keeping our eyes open for ideas on what we want to do for a table, but for now our wooden crates stood up on end work great as end tables for drinks when we're outside.

Looking forward to more time outside on the patio, enjoying our new furniture! Come on, sunshine!

Puget Sound Spring Events 2011

Hi friends!

There are a few events I am very excited about this Spring in the Puget Sound area, so I am passing these event dates along to anyone else who may be interested. There is nothing like an antique show, plant sale or farmers market to get my inspiration juices flowing for my home and garden!

Check out more information about each of these events by clicking on the links below:

• Kitsap Antique Show: April 2 - 3
• Bloedel Reserve Plant Sale & Open House: April 16 - 17
• First day of Bremerton Farmers Market: May 5
• Kitsap Master Gardeners Plant Sale: May 6-7
• Seattle Tilth Edible Plant Sale: May 7-8

Looking forward to seeing you there!

P.S. I just have to share this very random photo I saw today,  it's too cute and fun not to share! His name is Herman, and he is a German Giant breed of rabbit (big bunny!). Happy Wednesday!

 

Herman

Tea for Two

Since Kyle's health incident, we've both had a small change in our beverage choices.  We've both been enjoying hot tea lately, especially anything minty. In fact, some friends brought a few boxes of tea for us when he was in the hospital, and I would have a cup or two every night.

I am normally a coffee gal, and I still enjoy a cup (or two!) in the morning. But, in the evening and especially right before bed time, there is nothing like a hot cup of tea to relax us both. Although Spring is here, it's still chilly here in the Pacific Northwest and this minty hot tea makes me feel all cozy inside.

Cheers!

Happy Spring!

Happy 2011 Spring, my friends! Kyle and I enjoyed the sunshine and coffee together this morning, a few minutes visiting with family later today, a little bit of work on a home project (more on that later) and some great time with a few close friends.

These are a couple quick snapshots from around the garden today while the sun was out. I just love Spring time; seeing what pops up around the yard. There seems to be something new and unexpected every week!

Did you do anything to celebrate the Spring season this weekend?

I'm baaaack - with some Adirondack Love

As I mentioned here, I have been on a long blog break for some personal family reasons.  My husband was in the hospital for several weeks, and everything is ok now, but he is still in recovery mode at home before returning to work in a few weeks.  We moved him from the hospital back home this past Friday, and let me tell you, coming home has never felt so amazing!

Let's just say this is one of those times in life where there are growing pains - pain due to so much uncertainty of what our future and life would really look like, and being scared of what could happen to him during surgery - but I've learned so many wonderful lessons along the way.  It's been one of the only times in my life I've felt like God has taken me by the shoulders, given me a good shake, and said WAKE UP!  I know I haven't fully processed everything that has happened in the past few weeks, but Kyle and I are looking at it as a real blessing and growing experience. It has changed the both of us in some really amazing ways, and I'm looking forward to more moments of letting this new perspective I have on life sink in a bit.

For those of you that want future updates on my husbands recovery, and to learn more about what happened in his own words, please check out his video blog here.

While I was in the hospital, I saw an email come in from World Market (one of my favorite stores) with an advertisement about the Adirondack chairs they are now carrying online. Oh goodness, I love all things Adirondack, so this was oh-so-tempting.

World Market

Until I saw the price tag - $99.99. I know it's a good price considering that they are Adirondacks, and I've seen them listed online with other retailers or builders for up to $300 per chair. But, come on now, I can't see myself or justify spending that much money on a chair that will mostly stay outdoors. I just can't and wont do it.
So, it got me thinking outside of the box. Could I build one or two of these? My friend, Sarah, used Ana White's furniture DIY plans for the kitchen island she build (now, click on that link and go check out what she built, it's amazing!).

Maybe she would have some plans for a couple Adirondack chairs?

Ana White

Ana White's Reader Photo

Of course she did! The estimated cost for these plans in materials is $20-50, they would probably be made better (made by me!) than the World Market chairs, and I can customize them with my own paint color or stain. Sounds like a plan. I am not so crazy about the modern, boxy top of these chairs, but could definitely round off the corners for more of a classic Adirondack look. I am adding this to my summer to do list for sure.

Can you tell I'm ready for spring and summer? Who's with me?